A comprehensive review on resistance against cotton leaf curl virus.

Cotton ( L.) is a significant fiber crop. Being a major contributor to the textile industry requires continuous care and attention.

A CRISPR way for accelerating cereal crop improvement: Progress and challenges.

Humans rely heavily on cereal grains as a key source of nutrients, hence regular improvement of cereal crops is essential for ensuring food security. The current food crisis at the global level is due to the rising population and harsh climatic conditions which prompts scientists to develop smart resilient cereal crops to attain food security. Cereal crop improvement in the past generally depended on imprecise methods like random mutagenesis and conventional genetic recombination which results in high off targeting risks.

Clinical Presentation, Diagnostic Approach, Laparoscopic Evaluation and Treatment of Impalpable Testis.

Objective: To find out the clinical presentation, utility of ultrasound for diagnosis, laparoscopic findings and treatment for clinically impalpable testis.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Department of Paediatric Surgery, National Institute of Child Health, Jinnah Sindh Medical University Karachi, from September 2019 to April 2020.

Critical review of microplastics removal from the environment.

Globally, microplastics pollution has become a serious environmental threat due to their multitude sources, widespread occurrence, persistence, and adverse effects to ecosystem and the human health. Addressing this multifaceted threat requires innovative technologies that can efficiently remove microplastics from the environment. In this review, we first overviewed the source, occurrence, and potential adverse impacts of microplastics to human health.

Serologic Evidence of Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus and Related Viruses in Pakistan.

We describe the seroprevalence of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) and the association of antibody occurrence with location, sex, and age among the human population in Pakistan. Our results indicate substantial activity of SFTSV and SFTSV-related viruses in this country.

Doctors' Interactions with Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives: Modelling Doctors Prescription Behaviour.

Using theory of planned behaviour, this study seeks to examine the effect of health practitioner's interaction with pharmaceutical sales representatives on their prescription behaviour. Data was collected from 248 health practitioners working in the city of Attock and from five Tehsils of Attock District through questionnaires with a net response rate of 82%. The hypothesis was tested by PLS Path Modelling.

Synthesis of Hollow Pt-Ni Nanoboxes for Highly Efficient Methanol Oxidation.

In direct methanol fuel cell technology, highly stable electrochemical catalysts are critically important for their practical utilization at the commercial scale. In this study, sub ~10 nm hollow Pt-Ni (1:1 at. ratio) nanoboxes supported on functionalized Vulcan carbon (Pt-Ni/C-R2) were synthesized through a facile method for the efficient electrooxidation of methanol.

Study of impact of acids and comparison of adsorption efficiency of Pb(II) from carbon and its modified nano-nickel coated version.

Acidic content in wastewaters poses greater difficulty in lead removal from most adsorbents as their removal efficiency significantly decreases in acidic media. Nano-nickel coated carbon (Ni/C), compared with uncoated carbon (C), has shown a much enhanced (almost 80% higher) tendency of Pb(II) removal from solutions having different acid concentrations. All of the characterization results show the creation of more active sites and functional groups on Ni/C.

Right Ventricular to Left Ventricular Ratio at CT Pulmonary Angiogram Predicts Mortality in Interstitial Lung Disease.

Background: Patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) may develop pulmonary hypertension (PH), often disproportionate to the severity of the ILD. The right ventricular to left ventricular diameter (RV:LV) ratio measured at CT pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) has been shown to provide valuable information in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and to predict death or deterioration in acute pulmonary embolism.

Methods: Demographic characteristics, ILD subtype, echocardiography, and detailed CTPA measurements were collected in consecutive patients undergoing both CTPA and right heart catheterization at the Royal Brompton Hospital between 2005 and 2015.

Odorant Item Specific Olfactory Identification Deficit May Differentiate Alzheimer Disease From Aging.

Objectives: To explore whether the ability to recognize specific odorant items is differentially affected in aging versus Alzheimer disease (AD); to refine olfactory identification deficit (OID) as a biomarker of prodromal and early AD.

Design: Prospective multicenter cross-sectional study with a longitudinal arm.

Setting: Outpatient memory diagnostic clinics in New York and Texas.

Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis-like cutaneous presentation of chikungunya fever: A case series.

Chikungunya fever is a benign, self-limiting, acute viral illness. An epidemic occurred in New Delhi, India, in August and September 2016. We observed many cases with atypical cutaneous features mimicking Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis during this epidemic, especially in infants and children.

An unusual presentation of primary cutaneous amyloidosis.

Primary localized cutaneous amyloidosis refers to a group of disorders characterized by deposition of amyloid in the dermis without any systemic involvement. It comprises the following clinical types: macular, lichenoid, nodular, and biphasic. There are also rare variants such as amyloidosis cutis dyscromica and poikiloderma-like cutaneous amyloidosis.

Solidification of cinnarizine self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems by fluid bed coating: optimization of the process and formulation variables.

Self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (SNEDDS) offer an efficient choice to improve the poor dissolution and erratic bioavailability of poorly-water soluble drugs. However, liquid SNEDDS experience some manufacturing and stability limitations. To overcome these limitations, the current study aims to investigate and optimize the solidification of cinnarizine (CN) liquid SNEDDS onto pellets by fluid bed coating.

Antitumor agent 25-epi Ritterostatin GN1N induces endoplasmic reticulum stress and autophagy mediated cell death in melanoma cells.

Metastatic melanoma is the most aggressive of all skin cancers and is associated with poor prognosis owing to lack of effective treatments. 25-epi Ritterostatin GN1N is a novel antitumor agent with yet undefined mechanisms of action. We sought to delineate the antitumor mechanisms of 25-epi Ritterostatin GN1N in melanoma cells to determine the potential of this compound as a treatment for melanoma.

Improving risk assessment of color additives in medical device polymers.

Many polymeric medical device materials contain color additives which could lead to adverse health effects. The potential health risk of color additives may be assessed by comparing the amount of color additive released over time to levels deemed to be safe based on available toxicity data. We propose a conservative model for exposure that requires only the diffusion coefficient of the additive in the polymer matrix, D, to be specified.

Urdu Nasta'liq text recognition using implicit segmentation based on multi-dimensional long short term memory neural networks.

The recognition of Arabic script and its derivatives such as Urdu, Persian, Pashto etc. is a difficult task due to complexity of this script. Particularly, Urdu text recognition is more difficult due to its Nasta'liq writing style.

Silver nanoparticles: Significance of physicochemical properties and assay interference on the interpretation of in vitro cytotoxicity studies.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have generated a great deal of interest in the research, consumer product, and medical product communities due to their antimicrobial and anti-biofouling properties. However, in addition to their antimicrobial action, concerns have been expressed about the potential adverse human health effects of AgNPs. In vitro cytotoxicity studies often are used to characterize the biological response to AgNPs and the results of these studies may be used to identify hazards associated with exposure to AgNPs.

USE OF A SPECIAL SPLINT IN REVERSE SURAL ARTERY FLAP TO REDUCE VENOUS CONGESTION AND FLAP NECROSIS.

Background: Distally based sural fascio-cutaneous flap is a commonly performed plastic surgery procedure for the coverage of distal third of leg, ankle and foot defects. However congestion is the main complication of this flap which results into partial or complete loss of the flap. We devised a special splint to reduce this complication and retrospectively reviewed its effect on this complication between two groups.

One pot light assisted green synthesis, storage and antimicrobial activity of dextran stabilized silver nanoparticles.

Background: Green synthesis of nanomaterials finds the edge over chemical methods due to its environmental compatibility. Herein, we report green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) mediated with dextran. Dextran was used as a stabilizer and capping agent to synthesize Ag NPs using silver nitrate (AgNO3) under diffused sunlight conditions.

Quantitative acoustic contrast tomography reveals unique multiscale physical fluctuations during aflatoxin synthesis in Aspergillus parasiticus.

Fungal pathogens need regulated mechanical and morphological fine-tuning for pushing through substrates to meet their metabolic and functional needs. Currently very little is understood on how coordinated colony level morphomechanical modifications regulate their behavior. This is due to an absence of a method that can simultaneously map, quantify, and correlate global fluctuations in physical properties of the expanding fungal colonies.

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray crystallographic studies of CrArsM, an arsenic(III) S-adenosylmethionine methyltransferase from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Arsenic is one the most toxic environmental substances. Arsenic is ubiquitous in water, soil and food, and ranks first on the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund Priority List of Hazardous Substances. Arsenic(III) S-adenosylmethionine methyltransferases (AS3MT in animals and ArsM in microbes) are key enzymes of arsenic biotransformation, catalyzing the methylation of inorganic arsenite to give methyl, dimethyl and trimethyl products.

Precursor/incubation of multi-scale damage state quantification in composite materials: using hybrid microcontinuum field theory and high-frequency ultrasonics.

A systematic framework for incubation of damage- state quantification in composites is almost absent in the current practice. Identification and quantification of the material state at its early stage has become significantly important in the field of structural health monitoring. Interaction between the intrinsic material state and ultrasonic wave signals, e.